Inspectors Hit Hotel With 12 Violations

Inspectors found a dozen critical food-safety violations this week in the restaurant of the NFL's headquarters hotel, where 25 league employees here for Super Bowl XLIV got sick from a stomach bug.

The oceanfront Westin Beach Resort in Fort Lauderdale also had failed a restaurant inspection in September, and let its license expire in December by not paying a $457 renewal fee, state officials said Friday.

Health officials were quick to say they did not yet know what caused the outbreak, how the guests got it or whether the hotel bore any blame. Samples were still being tested.

"It's an ongoing investigation, a routine investigation we are doing" after someone complained Wednesday, said Candy Sims, a spokeswoman for the Broward County Health Department.

NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy described his co-workers' illness as a 24-hour bug.

Hotel General Manager Amaury Piedra said the hotel was cooperating with the investigation. He does not believe the hotel's food was the cause of the illnesses, saying the symptoms match a virus.

The Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation, which oversees food sellers, inspected the hotel Wednesday and found violations such as open food stored in unclean places, employees handling food with bare hands, lack of handwashing and dirty conditions, the inspection report showed. The restaurant did not meet minimum standards but the report said the problems "are not an immediate threat to the public," so it could stay open.

"This is not a good report, but it's not unusual for a restaurant to have several critical violations," said Jenn Meale, a department spokeswoman.

A follow-up inspection Thursday found five violations uncorrected, and Piedra said the rest were being resolved as fast as possible.

"We started working on it right away. We want to make sure we go above and beyond," he said.

The hotel restaurant also scored a substandard grade in September, its first inspection since Starwood Hotels took over the old Sheraton Yankee Trader. The place passed a reinspection in October.

Meale said that the inspection this week found the hotel let the restaurant license expire Dec. 1, which can bring a fine of $250 to $500. Piedra blamed an office error and said a hotel attorney was already filing the paperwork.